A Very Hot Sunday

Today was a very hot day. It probably reached 95 or so, with a decent amount of humidity. Despite that, I was out and about most of the day.

Including riding in the top of a double-decker bus! Another first

I woke up somewhat late today, and worked a bit on some homework before departing a bit early for the planned excursion to the Reichstag builing. I didn't totally know where the entrance was, so I made sure to get there 20 minutes early just in case. Because I got there so early, I had a chance to look around that area a bit, and saw a line of bricks representing where the Berlin Wall ran. Being so right on top of all of this history I have learned about is really something else. It really hits home, but also seems not quite as important in a way. It is weird how used to this history the people here must have become, because they don't acknowledge it as much as I feel like I do.

The path of the wall

We then lined up and visited the Reichstag building, the equivalent of the German Capitol Hill. It is interesting because the outside is so old, yet the inside has all been renovated after 1990, so it is incredibly new. They took away my Frisbee, saying I could have it back after the trip, which was a bit of a let down. We then listened to a woman talk about the parliament and how it works and such before heading up to the top of the building to look at the dome. It was a pretty spectacular view of the city, and the dome was nice, but we didn't stay for very long because it was like an oven. The heat was incredibly intense up there, especially inside the dome, so we headed down after only about 15 minutes of sightseeing.

Hot, but it had a great view

A large group of us then took off to find Karneval des Kultures. This is a massive street festival that takes place in Kreuzberg. It was HUGE. Tons of people and tons of music and stands. After wandering around it for a long time (and ingesting a couple of ice creams to save myself from heat stroke), we headed back home. This was a very long day, and very hot, but it was fun meeting people and seeing even more of the city. I now need to go look up more and more things about the Berlin wall, because it is so hard to imagine it running through this city.

The packed streets of Karneval